Albizia lebbeck

Title

Albizia lebbeck

Authors

Rupert C. Barneby

Scientific Name

Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth.

Description

21. Albizia lebbeck (Linnaeus) Bentham, London J. Bot. 3: 87 ("Lebbeka variant spelling often subsequently copied). 1844. Mimosa lebbeck Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 516. 1753. — "Habitat in AEgypto superiore." — Holotypus (Brenan, Fl. Trop. E. Afr., Leguminosae subfam. Mimosoideae 147. 1959): LINN 1228.16. — Acacia lebbeck (Linnaeus) Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 4: 1066. 1806. Feuilleea lebbek (Linneaus) O. Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 1: 184. 1891.

Mimosa speciosa Jacquin, Icon. Pl. Rar. 1: 19, t. 198. 1786 & Collectanea 1: 47. 1787. — .. ex semine sine titulo ex India Orientali transmisso enata ..." — No typus seen, but the cited plate unequivocal; equated with A. lebbeck by Bentham, 1844, 1. c. — Acacia speciosa (Jacquin) Willdenow, Sp. Pl. 4: 1066. 1806.

Albizia lebbeck var. pubescens Bentham, London. J. Bot. 3: 87. 1844. — "... with the smooth form in East India . .."—No typus identified at K in 1990.

Pithecolobium splitgerberianum Miquel, Stirp. Surinam. Select. 5: 1851. — "[Surinam] Herb. Hostm[ann.] n. 459."—Holotypus, U!; isotypus, G!.

Albizia lebbeck sensu Bentham, 1875: 562 ("Lebbek"); Rock, Leg. Pl. Hawaii, pl. 5,6. 1920; Kirtikar & Basu, Ind. Med. Pl., ed. 2, 2: 936, t. 383. 1935; T’ang-jui Liu, Illust. Lign. Pl. Taiwan 1: t. 424. 1960; Little, Common Trees Puerto Rico & Virgin Is. fig. 60. 1964; Isely, 1973: 76, map 15 (Florida); Verdcourt, Man. New Guinea Leg. fig. 49. 1979; Elias, Trees N. Amer. fig. 637. 1980; Bisse, 1988: 227; Wagner & al., Man. Fl. PL Hawai’i 1: 644, pl. 87. 1990.

Macrophyllidious, deciduous trees of rapid growth mostly 3—15(—18) m but sometimes fertile as saplings 1.5 m upward, the simple or branched trunk attaining 2-6 dm dbh, the young branchlets and all axes of lvs and inflorescence usually finely pilosulous with straight erect or with incurved hairs to ±0.1-0.4 mm, sometimes glabrescent, the lvs bicolored, the papery-membranous lfts above bright green, sublustrous and most often glabrous but sometimes sparsely strigulose, beneath paler, often glaucescent, and commonly puberulent at least along some nerves but occasionally glabrous, the inflorescence either a short terminal, proximally foliate pseudoraceme of compact umbelliform capitula immersed in foliage, or composed of capitula axillary to a succession of lvs, the primary axis rather abruptly flexuous. Stipules (few seen) submembranous linear-oblong 2-4 mm obtuse, caducous long before expansion of lf, absent from most fl and from all fruiting specimens. Lf-formula ii—iii(—iv)/4— 9(—10); lf-stks (6-)7-17(-22) cm, the petiole (3.5-)4-11 (-12.5) cm, at middle 1.4-2.6 mm diam, subterete proximally, narrowly sulcate distally, the sulcus continuous or randomly interrupted at insertion of pinnae by a nectary, the first (only) interpinnal segment 2-5 cm; first petiolar nectary inserted usually below, sometimes near midpetiole, or close to lf-pulvinus, sessile, plane or shallowly concave at middle, 1.8-4.5 mm diam, in profile 0.25-0.6 mm tall (exceptionally lacking), a similar but smaller nectary sometimes below all (or only the distal) pinna-pairs, and yet smaller ones on 2-several distal segments of pinna- rachises; pinnae subdecrescent proximally or subequilong, the rachis of longest pair (4-)6-14.5 cm, the longer interfoliolar segments (1-)1.2-2.2 cm; 1ft- pulvinules (1-)1.2-2.5 mm, cuneately widened upward to (0.5-)0.6-1.1 mm; lfts decrescent proximally, thence subequilong, the blades oblong or ovate-oblong from inequilateral base, broadly obtuse or obscurely emarginate, the largest 30-48 x (8.5—) 11—17 mm, 1.8-3.1 times as long as wide; venation palmate and then pinnate, of 4—6 primary nerves from pulvinule, the straight or gently incurved midrib displaced to divide blade 1:1.5-2.2, the inner posterior primary nerve produced nearly to midblade or well short of it, the midrib giving rise on each side to 5-8 (and random intercalary minor) secondary nerves brochidodrome well within the slenderly nerved margin, these further generating a reticulum of fine veinlets, the whole venation prominulous on both faces of lft, Peduncles (l-)2-4-nate, 3—12(—13) cm; capitula 18-45- fld, prior to anthesis globose, becoming hemispherical, the fls dimorphic, the peripheral ones pedicellate, the terminal one larger and sessile, the scarcely dilated receptacle ±2.5-6 mm; bracts oblanceolate, linear-spatulate, or subrhombic 1.2-4 mm, puberulent dorsally near apex, fugacious from below young fl-buds; perianth 5(-6)-merous, the calyx finely pilosulous, the greenish corolla strigulose on lobes only; PERIPHERAL FLS: pedicels (1—)1.5—5.5. mm; fl- buds slenderly or plumply pyriform; calyx narrowly campanulate and often a little expanded beyond middle, 3.7-5.8 x 1.9-2.5 mm, toward base weakly 5- angulate, the ovate teeth 0.3-1.1 mm; corolla slenderly vase-shaped 7.7-12.3 mm, the ovate-acute lobes 1.6-3.3 mm; androecium (22-)26-42-merous, (18-) 24-36(-44) mm, the stemonozone 0.7-1.6 mm, the tube (3-)3.5-5.5 mm; ovary sessile, linear-ellipsoid, glabrous; TERMINAL FL: calyx 4.8-6 x 2.2-3.5 mm; corolla 9-14.5 mm; androecium mostly 40-52- merous, the free filaments partly filiform and partly ribbonlike, or sometimes fewer and all dilated, the tube 11.5-19 mm. Pods randomly ascending, 1-5 per capitulum, sessile or almost so, in profile broad-linear or narrowly oblong-elliptic 13.0-32 x 2.5-5.2 cm, broad-cuneate at base, rostellate or apiculate at apex, framed by essentially straight, dorsally plane or shallowly bisulcate sutures 1.2-2.2 mm wide, 8-12-seeded, the stiffly papery, stramineous and glabrous valves bullately dilated over each seed (the bullae ±1.5-2.5 cm diam and alternately convex and concave along each valve), pallid within, the cavity continuous; dehiscence tardy, often after fall of pod, inert, through the ventral suture only, this narrowly gaping to release seeds; seeds transverse at middle of pod, basifixed on a filiform funicle, compressed but plump, in broad profile oblong-elliptic or round, emarginate at hilum, ±9-11 mm in greatest diameter and ±3 mm thick, the smooth but hardly lustrous, khaki or light reddish brown testa consisting of a thin outer integument and a hard crustaceous inner shell, the inversely U-shaped pleurogram occupying about half of each face; cotyledons plump, surrounded peripherally by a band of endosperm.

Native of tropical E Asia, by mid-nineteenth century randomly circumtropical, both as a cultivated tree (occasionally used for coffee-shade or about dwellings) and a living fence, becoming weedy in disturbed woodland and in pastureland, from sea level to ±1000 m, in the New World known from W and Gulf lowland Mexico (Sinaloa; Tamaulipas to Yucatán Peninsula), thence S through Chiapas and Central America to Panama; Bermuda and Bahamas; Greater and Lesser Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Virgin Is., S to the Grenadines); and in South America from N Colombia E through N and centr. Venezuela to coastal Guyana and Surinam, thence S, mostly as a shade and street tree, from Maranhao, Brazil southward to Minas Gerais, Brasilia, and Guanabara. — Fl. irregular, but usually at onset of rainy seasons. — Acacia (Mexico and Central America); mata-ratón (Panama); lengua de mujer (Latin America) or woman’s tongue (former British colonies, in reference to the rattling of seed-pods); bo is noir (Fr. Antilles); baile de caballero (NW Venezuela).